Wringer



July 14;, 1925.

J. S[ EASON WRINGER Filed March 25 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 3 .i lm NM xv wm N% w% Mm July 14, 1925. 1,545,643

.1. s. EASON WRINGER Filed March 23, 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented July 14, 1925.

UNITED STATES.

PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN S. EASON, OF ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, ASSIGNOR TO WIN CITY WRINGER COMPANY, OF ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

WRINGER.

Application filed March 23, 1922. Serial No. 545,949.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I JOHN S. EASON, a citizen of the United tates,.residing at St. Paul, in the county of Ramsey and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and. useful Improvements in Wringers; and'I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My present invention relates to clothes wringers and is particularly designed as an improvement on or refinement of the wringer disclosed and claimed in my pending application Serial Number 470,242, filed g I enerally stated, the inventlon consist-s of the novel construction, arrangement and combinations of arts hereinafter described and defined in t e claims.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate the invention, like characters indicate like parts throughout the several views.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation with some parts in vertical section, showingthe improved wringer;

Fig. 2 is an end elevation with parts at the right of the line marked 2-2 on Fig. 1 removed;

Fig. 3 is a transverse vertical section on the line 33 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a horizontal section taken approximately on the irregular line 44 of Fig. 1 l

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary section on the line 5--5 of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 6 is a perspective showing a drain board lock removed from the wringer.

Preferably and as shown, the frame 7 of the wringer is a hollow cast shell of yokelike form provided in the opposing faces of its vertical end extensions-with openings through which the ends of the upper and lower wringer rollers 8 and 9 are passed. The hollow ends of the frame 7 afford guide columns for relatively fixed lower bearings 10 and vertically movable upper bearings 11, between which bearings coiled springs 12 are compressed. The shafts 8" and 9 of the rollers 8 and 9, respectively, are journaled in the bearings lland 10 and, at one end, are provided with intermeshing gears 13. Theshaft 9 ofthe lower roller 9 is extended at one end and provided with a sliding half-clutch 14 that is yieldingly pressed outward b a coiled spring 15 placed around said s aft and compressed be tween said half-clutch and the adjacent lower bearing 10. At this end, the frame 7 1s formed with a large opening and, as shown, is bolted or otherwise rigidly secured to a housing 16 which, as shown, is swiveled on a standard or pedestal 17. This housing 16 contains reversible driving mechanism, not necessary for the purposes of this case to consider other than to note that, for co-operation with the half-clutch 14, there is a half-clutch 18 secured to a short shaft 19 journaled in said housing and driven through a reversible bevel gear drive indicated as an entirety by the numeral 20.

Adjustably mounted on lower portions of the vertical ends of the frame 7 is a reversible drain board 21 preferably in the form of a thin cast metal. structure formed at its ends with upper flanges 22 and lower flanges 23, which flanges, respectively, are formed with notches 24 and 25. The lower flanges 23 ride upon inwardly projecting lugs 26 formed on the lower ends of flanges 27 that are cast integral with the ends of the frame 7 and are arranged in pairs at each end of the drain board. The notches 25 of the flanges 23 are adapted to beengaged with the lugs 26, as indicated by full and dotted lines in Fig. 3, and the notches 24 of the upper flanges 22 are adapted to be engaged with. projecting shoulders 28 formed on the lower vertical portions of the frame 7, as also best shown in Fig. 3.

For positively locking the drain board engaged with the frame 7, as just described, either in the position shown by full lines or by dotted lines in Fig. 3, I provide a positive look. This positive lock is preferably made in the form of a U-shaped strap 29 havin reduced ends, the sides thereof being space by a tie-rod 30. The sides of this look work in horizontal grooves 31 formed in the depending legs 27, (see particularly Fig. 5), and the ends of said lock are shown as reduced so that, when said lock is slid inward, its reduced ends are engaged, the one just below the drain board and the other just above the adjacent flange 22 thereof. The lock, when thus engaged with the drain board, will positively hold the same, either in the position shown by full lines or by dotted lines in Fig. 3, and positively interlocked to the frame. Of course, when the lock 29 is drawn outward, the drain board may be freely moved from one position to another.

In the arrangement illustrated, the vertically movable upper roller bearings 11 are provided with combined wearing and guiding caps 11 that move vertically in guideways within the vertical portions of the frame 7. The means for pressing the upper roller downward and toward the co-operating lower roller is as follows: A pair of oppositely extended pressure levers 32 are located within the hollow transverse upper portion of the frame 7 and are intermediately pivoted thereto by fulcrum pins 33. The outer ends of these levers 32 are forked, and fulcrumed or pivoted to the prongs thereof are pressure devices in the form of hell cranks 34, the lower arms of which are provided with lugs 35 which, as shown, press directly against the combined wearing and guiding caps 11*. The inner ends of the levers 32 overlap and are provided with bearing lugs or ends 36 that rest on a bifurcated cam or eccentric segment 37 that is pivoted on a pin 38 mounted in the sides of the frame 7. This bifurcated cam 37 is formed integral or otherwise rigidly secured to an operating lever 39. The cam 37. is shown as provided with circumferentially spaced notches with which the lever ends 36 are engageable to prevent accidental movements of said cam. A small coiled spring 40, seated in the right-hand lever 32 inward of its pivot, bears against the top frame 7 and yieldingly presses the inner end of said lever 32 downward.

'Interposed and compressed between the upper arms of the bell cranks 34 is a floating spring pressure device made up of two coiled springs or coiled spring sections 41 and a floating bracket 42 interposed between said springs. To hold the outer ends of the coiled springs in working position, the upper arms-of the bell cranks 34 are provided with projecting spring-aligning studs 43, and the ends of the bracket 42 are provided with projecting spring-centering studs 44. One of the studs 44 is preferably formed on the head 45 of a spring tension adjusting screw 46, which latter works with threaded engagement through one end of the bracket 42. Said bracket 42 has a longitudinal slot through which the pivot pin 38 is passed, and to further guide said bracket and hold the same against rotation, it is provided at its ends with projecting arms 47 that work in grooves 48 formed on the inner walls of the frame 7, (see particularly Fig. 4). By reference to Fig. 4, it will also be noted that the inner ends of the two levers 32 are laterally offset arms aligned for engagement, one with each of the sections of the bifurcated or two-part cam 37.

For tripping the clutch 14 out of action under certain conditions hereinafter to be more fully noted, I provide a tripping lever 49 that is intermediately pivoted at 50 to the interior of one end of the frame 7 and has a bifurcated lower end that works in a groove 51 formed in the hub of the sliding clutch member 14. The upper end of the lever 49 has a short cam surface 52 and, above the same, a longer cam surface 53. The right-hand pressure lever 32 is formed with a projecting cam end 54 that normally engages with the cam surface 52 but permits the clutch 14 to be held in engagement with the driving clutch 18, by a coiled spring 15. Here it may be noted that the cam surface 52 is approximately concentric to the pivot 33 of the right-hand lever 32 so that slight vertical movements of said lever, such as produced by the cam 37, will not change the position of the tripping lever 49 of the clutch 14.

Summary 0 7 operation.

The tension under which the upper wringer roll will be pressed against or toward the lower wringer roll may be varied by adjustments of the screw 46, which latter varies the tension or compression of the springs 41. As the bracket 42 is free to slide it isevident that its acts as a pressure equalizer, causing the same tension to be always put upon both ends of the rollers, and this, too, regardless of whether or not the rollers are separated at one end more than at the other. The above noted adjustment of the springs 42 is independent of another and more important means for adjusting ,the roller pressure, towit: that afforded by adjustments of the cam 37. This cam, operating on the levers 32, gives the greatest roller pressure .when set as shown in Fig. 1 and gives a progressively decreasing pressure when said cam, by movements of the lever 39 from the left toward the right, is moved in the same direction. When, however, the lever 39 is. moved to the dotted line position, Fig. 1, the cam 37 is moved out from under the free inner ends of the pressure levers 32, thereby releasing said levers and permitting the one operative on the clutch tripping lever to be moved freely upward by the spring 40. Of course, where the springs 12, between the bearings 10 and 11, are employed, they will be under strain to throw both levers 32 upward and one thereof will assist the spring 40, but

this assistance is not necessary for the successful operation of the spring 40. The springs 12 are not absolutely necessary but are desirable for the purpose of separating the rollers when the latter are relieved from pressure.

When the pressure levers 32 move upward, the lug 54 on the right-hand lever, operating on the cam surface 53 of the tripping lever 49, moves the sliding clutch 14 out of engagement with the power-driven clutch 18 and automatically disconnects the driving rollers from the driving mechanism, permitting the same to instantly stop. This automatic tripping action will take place whether or not the wringer rollers are separated and, in fact, the separation of the wringer rollers does not control the tripping out of action of the driving mechanism, but, on the contrary, this function is here performed by the act of relieving the wringer rollers from pressure, which, as

illustrated, results in movements of the levers 32, whether or not the wringer rollers are separated.

The lever 39 and cam 37, in addition to their function of adjusting the tension of the roller spring tension device, afford a safety device for instantly relieving the rollers from pressure and, of course, they also afiord means-for relieving the rollers from pressure when the wringer is out of use. However, the driving mechanism will be thrown out of action automatically whenever the lever 39 is moved to a releasing position, either in a case of accident or intention, as will be done when the wringer is to be thrown out of action or rendered idle.

What I claim is: a

1. In a wringer, the combination with wringing rollers and power-driving mecha nism therefor including a clutch,'of a roller spring tension device capable of being thrown into and out of action, means for throwing said roller tension device into and out of action, and a clutch trip independent of said means and operative to release said clutch when said roller tension device is thrown out of action, and independently of operating movements of said rollers.

2. The structure defined in claim 1 in which said roller tension device includes pressure levers, and an abutment operative to throw said pressure levers into and out of action at will.

3. In a wringer, the combination with cooperating wringer rollers and a power-driving mechanism therefor including a clutch, of a roller spring tension device including levers carrying spring-pressed elements operative on the movable wringing roller, an abutment operative on said pressure levers and movable to and from. positions to throw the same into and out of action, and a pivoted clutch-tripping lever with which one of said pressure levers is engageable and opera tive to release said clutch when said pressure levers are released from said abutment.

4. The structure defined in claim 3 in further combination with a spring for operating the clutch tripping lever and operative on the pressure lever to move said pressure lever when released, independently of whether or not the wringing r'ollers are separated. 1

5. In a wringer, the combination with a frame and wringing rollers mounted therein, of a power-driving mechanism for said rollers including a clutch, vertically movable bearingsin which one of said rollers is journaled, pressure levers pivoted to said frame and at their free ends provided with spring pressed elements operative on said movable roller bearings to depress the same, and means for operating the pressure levers, and a clutch-releasing lever mounted on said frame with its free end arranged to be e ngaged by the free end of one of said pressure levers, when the latter is released, and to thereby disconnect the power-driving mechanism from said rollers.

6. In a wringer, the combination with a frame and wringing rollers mounted therein, of a power-driving mechanism for said rollers including a clutch, vertically movable bearings in which one of said rollers is journaled, pressure levers pivoted to said frame and at their free ends provided with springpressed elements operative on said movable roller bearings to depress the'same, a clutchreleasing lever mounted on said frame with its free end arranged to be engaged by the free end of one of said pressure levers, when the latter is released, and to thereby disconnect the power-driving mechanism from said rollers, an abutment movable to and from an operative position under the innerends of said pressure levers and means for operatin the abutment. I

The structure defined in claim 6 in further combination with a spring operative on the said pressure lever that acts upon said clutch-tripping lever, to depress the inner end thereof when released from said abutment. I

8. The structure defined in claim 6 in which said abutment has aneccentric surface for varying the pressure on said movable roller and said clutch-tripping lever has such normal clearance from the free end of the co-operating pressure lever that said clutch will not be released by any of the pressure-varying adjustments of said abutment.

9. In a wringer, the combination with'cooperating wringer rollers and a power-driving mechanism therefor, of intermediately pivoted pressure levers provided at their co-operating wringer roller, a spring tension device independent of said levers and compressed between the upper arms of said bell cranks, an abutment movable to and from 5 an operative position under the inner ends of said pressure, means for operating the abutment a clutch tripping lever in the path of movement of the outer end of the pressure levers, and a spring operative on one of said pressure levers to force the inner end thero- 1 of downward irrespective of the tension of said spring tension device to operate said clutch tripping lever.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signatm'o,

JOHN S. EASON. 

